See total ranking

McCormick

McCormick is engaged in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of spices, seasoning mixes, condiments and other products to the food industry, including retailers, food manufacturers and food service businesses. The company offers brands for consumers in approximately 150 countries and territories, with sales, distribution and production facilities located in North America, Europe and China. It markets both global and local brands, including Zatarain's, Stubb's, Thai Kitchen and Simply Asia.

Summary

McCormick ranks 116th in the Food and Agriculture Benchmark. While the company provides good disclosure on some topics in environment and governance and strategy, McCormick currently lacks disclosure across most social and nutrition indicators. In environment, McCormick reports on its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions against time-bound targets. However, it has yet to address most other environmental topics, notably towards its sourcing practices, such as improving soil health, optimising fertiliser and pesticide use or reducing water usage. Moreover, in nutrition, McCormick does not provide sufficient disclosure on most of the topics, except for food safety. Similarly, in social, McCormick does not currently address key topics sufficiently, including a comprehensive approach for addressing child and forced labour as well as the health and safety of vulnerable groups in its supply chain.

Ranking position: #116/350
Total score: 25.6/100

Measurement area	Score	Rank (0-350)
Governance and strategy	#1 3.3 /10	#150
Environment	#1 12.2 /30	#50
Nutrition	#1 3.8 /30	#131
Social inclusion	#1 6.3 /30	#142

Segment	Rank
Agricultural products and commodities	#41

Segment ranking summary

McCormick ranks 41st among its peers in the agricultural products and commodities segment. McCormick’s position reflects its performance against its peers, whereby it discloses good practices on some topics, notably in environment, however it currently lags against its peers on other issues. The company is a leader among its peers in relation to plastic use and reporting on its GHG emissions, though could improve in the environment measurement area more broadly by increasing is disclosure on other topics. Furthermore, while McCormick provides good disclosure on food safety, it lacks commitments to increase the availability, affordability and accessibility of healthy foods, topics its peers have already begun to address. In the social measurement area, McCormick ranks poorly, with a lack of disclosure on key issues such as child and forced labour and land rights as well as efforts to promote and provide decent work for its workers.

Governance and strategy: No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.
Environment: No leading practices were identified for the company in the environment measurement area.
Nutrition: No leading practices were identified for the company in the nutrition measurement area.
Social inclusion: No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Governance and strategy: Sustainable development strategy
McCormick discloses objectives covering sustainability topics relevant to the three benchmark measurement areas of environment, nutrition and social inclusion. In addition, the company discloses the process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant topics through a materiality assessment. Moreover, the company has set time-bound targets for its most relevant sustainability topics and reports progress against them. Nonetheless, there is an opportunity for McCormick to strengthen its performance by applying its targets and priority topics to its entire value chain.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
While McCormick discloses having a Sustainability Council that is responsible for the implementation of its sustainable development strategy, it has an opportunity to strengthen accountability by assigning this responsibility to its highest governance body. Moreover, the company should disclose further information on its decision-making processes and oversight responsibilities as well as linking sustainability objectives and targets to specific roles and remuneration.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses that it undertakes stakeholder engagement activities, reporting on six relevant stakeholder groupings. However, it does not provide an overview of the issues raised via these activities, nor how the outcomes have been integrated into its sustainability strategy, presenting an opportunity for the company in future reporting.
Environment: Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
McCormick has a target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 20% by 2025 and reports progress against this target annually. Nonetheless, there is an opportunity for the company to improve its performance by setting a reduction target that is aligned with a 1.5-degree warming scenario.

Water use
While McCormick discloses a target to reduce water use by 20% in its facilities by 2025 and reports progress against this target annually, the company increased its water use in both 2019 and 2020. Therefore, the company does not provide evidence that it is reducing water withdrawals across its operations and supply chain, presenting a risk going forward.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
While McCormick discloses qualitative evidence through its sustainable agriculture policy, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets to increase the percentage of production from sustainable practices that improve soil health and agrobiodiversity, reporting progress against the targets and disclosing quantifiable data on its impact on soil health and agrobiodiversity.
Nutrition: Availability of healthy foods
McCormick does not disclose a commitment or activities to increase the availability of healthy and nutritious foods.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
McCormick does not disclose a commitment to address food insecurity by improving the accessibility and affordability of healthy and nutritious foods.

Food safety
The company provides evidence that 100% of its operations are certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme. However, it does not disclose the percentage of food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognised food safety scheme or certification programme, presenting an opportunity for the company going forward.
Social inclusion: Child labour
While McCormick indicates that it will not use child labour in its supply chain, there is insufficient disclosure regarding its own operations. Moreover, the company does not indicate that it requires its suppliers to verify the age of workers recruited.

Forced labour
While McCormick indicates that it will not use forced labour in its supply chain, it is not clear – in a code of conduct or similar policy document – if this is also the case for its own operations.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
McCormick provides evidence of training and financing activities to support farmers and small-scale producers in developing countries by 2025 through its Partnering with Purpose programmes. However, the company can strengthen its performance by measuring the outcomes and impact of a proportion of its support activities.

Respect human rights: While McCormick discloses that it has a grievance mechanism accessible to both workers and external parties, it does not provide sufficient disclosure on most other human rights-related indicators. This includes information on how it identifies and assesses human rights risks and impacts and integrates and acts on these, as well as how it engages with potentially affected stakeholders. Moreover, McCormick should look to strengthen its commitment towards both human rights and workers rights.
Provide and promote decent work: McCormick discloses public information on health and safety fundamentals but could improve its performance by disclosing the main types of work-related injuries and number of hours worked. Similarly, the company could improve on gender equality by disclosing a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. There is a lack of sufficient information on all other topics regarding providing and promoting decent work, including commitments to paying a living wage, regulating working hours and collective bargaining fundamentals, offering the company an opportunity to increase its level of disclosure in these areas to improve its performance
Act ethically: McCormick discloses information on most indicators related to acting ethically as a business, including a data protection policy which details the mechanisms available to users to understand the information the company has collected about them. Moreover, the company provides some disclosure on anti-bribery policies and responsible lobbying fundamentals. However, it can improve by increasing the level of disclosure in these areas, including the process(es) to identify its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities in its own operations. Lastly, insufficient information was found regarding responsible tax policies, including a global tax strategy that has been approved by the highest governance body.

More about the company

Headquarters: Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
Food and agriculture revenue USD: 5,601,300,000
Group revenue USD: 5,601,300,000
Onwnership structure: Publicly listed
Number of employees: 13,000
Website: https://www.mccormickcorporation.com

This company is part of the SDG2000, the 2.000 most influential companies

See company profile

McCormick

Segment ranking summary

Leading practices

Governance and strategy

Environment

Nutrition

Social inclusion

Risks and opportunities

Governance and strategy

Environment

Nutrition

Social inclusion

Core social indicators

Respect human rights

Provide and promote decent work

Act ethically

More about the company

This company is part of the SDG2000, the 2.000 most influential companies